Originally, satay is an Indonesian and Malaysian dish, consisting of three or more small pieces of roasted meat on a thin wooden skewer, usually made of bamboo or a wood-like material. The pieces of meat may be pieces of pork, beef, chicken, goat, prawns, etc.
Satay is produced by pushing several pieces of meat onto a skewer made of wood-like or metal material, if desired together with vegetables, such as onion or pepper between the successive pieces of meat. Subsequently, the satay is fried in a fat-like or oil-like means or grilled on a grill over a coal fire or log fire.
In addition, satays can be made by pushing other food items onto a skewer, such as for example sweets, cheese, fruit and the like.
Compiling satays may be executed manually. In view of the time-consuming character of manually compiling satays, automatic or semi-automatic appliances are desirable. Such devices are already known.
GB 2,442,871 describes a holder with various compartments for positioning pieces of meat and a facility for introducing a skewer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,435 describes a similar device to the one described in GB 2,442,871, in which various satays can be produced in parallel. However, composing satays is still carried out manually in this embodiment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,366 describes a two-part cylindrical holder comprising several compartments in the longitudinal direction for fixing pieces of meat, wherein the compartments are provided with a central opening via which a skewer can be pushed through the pieces of meat. Analogously, a device is described in which such cylinders are fitted next to each other.
However, the drawback of such a device is that it is impossible to produce satays of different sizes or using different vegetables. In addition, the process is still very laborious, as the skewer has to be introduced manually. In addition, working with such a device requires a lot of assembly work.
To this end, EP 2,048,960 B1 describes a device for composing satays, comprising a number of holders which can be stacked and which are provided with at least a cup-shaped recess with an open and an opposite bottom, which has a passage for introducing a skewer in the direction of the stacking of the holder, wherein the holders are split once the satays have been formed, so that the satays can be released.
Such a machine makes it possible to fill the holder with different ingredients of different dimensions in a simple manner. In addition, skewering the food is much easier and the satays can be removed from the device in a simple manner once they have been produced. The assembly work can be limited and composing the satays is partly carried out automatically.
Despite the improvements which have been made regarding a device and method for composing satays, the following problems still exist.
Composing satays still requires many sequential and repetitive manual operations, as a result of which the time required to compose one satay and the associated use of workmen forms a limitation to industrial use.
In addition, the use of moving mechanical parts is an inherent threat to the operation of the device.
Furthermore, the need for frequent physical contact between the operative and the food items when preparing satays according to the known methods forms an inherent problem with regard to hygiene and therefore has to be limited.